The development of the conventional combination lock can be traced back to the "letter-lock" used in England at the beginning of the seventeenth century. The letter lock contained a number of rings, each ring being marked with letters and having a slot. A spindle was threaded through the rings. When the rings were rotated so that a particular word was formed, the slots on the rings would line up. The spindle could then be drawn through the slot, and the lock could be opened. Later in the nineteenth century, the combination lock evolved to include tumblers, pins and arms.
However, current conventional combination locks have not changed in that these combination locks still require a body to house a series of tumblers with connected pins. These tumblers, pins and arms generally cause the combination lock to have a relatively large number of internal parts and increase the complexity of fabrication and assembly. In addition, these conventional combination locks typically have applications limited to locking large stationary objects, for example, lockers, gates, and garage doors because typical general purpose combination locks have relatively massive lock bodies to accommodate tumblers or levers. Further, typical conventional combination locks are loosely fitted onto the object to be locked and, thus, are not suitable for locking moving objects. Moreover, typical conventional combination locks are large and are not suitable for use in small spaces.
For example, conventional combination locks are not suitable for use in typical automobile steering wheel locks (e.g., The Club.RTM.). Consequently, these steering wheel locks generally use conventional key locks that are fixed in the steering wheel lock. These key locks are intended to be permanently attached to the steering wheel lock. Thus, if the key lock of a steering wheel lock is damaged, it cannot be easily replaced. Moreover, a conventional tumbler-type key lock has pins that can be sheared relatively easily because the pins are typically relatively small in diameter. Further, the key hole provides relatively easy access for tools used in shearing these pins.
When not in use, these conventional steering wheel locks typically must be removed from the steering wheel to drive the automobile. The length, shape and mass of these steering wheel locks make them inconvenient and cumbersome to store while driving the car. In addition, each time the user wants to lock the steering wheel, the user must locate the steering wheel lock and perform the cumbersome process of mounting it on the steering wheel.